1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for a zone-based service, and more particularly, to a method of enhancing zone-based service in a personal network gateway.
2. Description of the Prior Art
More and more users connect their electronic devices to small range Personal Network (PN), such as a home network, an in-car network and a body area network. Connection between the PN and other networks expands access ability of electronic devices or a Personal Network Entity (PNE) of the PN and realizes many services, such as using PNE outside of PN to access various services. For example, a personal media player connected to the Bluetooth network can receive video contents from the Internet via a cellular phone connecting to the Wide Area Network (WAN).
Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) is the focal point for the development of mobile service enabler specifications, which supports the creation of interoperable end-to-end mobile services. OMA drives service enabler architectures and open enabler interfaces that are independent of the underlying wireless networks and platforms. OMA creates interoperable mobile data service enablers that work across mobile devices, service providers, networks, geography and telecommunication firms.
Furthermore, in the communication protocol of OMA, Converged Personal Network Services (CPNS) server, Personal Network Gateway and PNE form a basic architecture of the CPNS. The CPNS server is a CPNS enabler entity, which replies requests from a Personal Network Gateway (PNGW) and ensures that appropriate applications are selected and appropriate contents are provided to the PNEs.
The PNGW serves as an intermediary entity between the PNEs and other networks that forwards the requests and the responses between the PNEs and the other networks. Besides, the PNEs are connected to the PNGW and between each other, and are used for rendering the contents received from the PNGW or from each other.
Other than the PNGW, the Zone Personal Network Gateway (Zone PNGW) is used for providing better service efficiency. In the CPNS, zone means the geographic area which is related to signalings of physical carriers, service providers, or users.
Different from normal PN GW, the concept of Zone PN GW is proposed to provide better service publication and utility. Zone in CPNS is a specific geographic area depending on the signaling capacities of physical bearer used or on the intention of the service provider or users. The concept of the Zone PN GW is that the Zone PN GW searches its zone regularly (periodically) to find out if some PNE which had been located outside of PN enters in. The Zone PN GW broadcasts and/or unicasts the message advertising the existence of Zone PN GW.
Zone Based Service Flow is provided in FIG. 1, which illustrates general flows for Zone Based Services mainly provided through the public PN GW. In FIG. 1, a ServiceDescriptionAdvertise message is sent from the CPNS Server to the PN GW which is a presumed step for the Zone Based Service. After receiving the ServiceDescriptionAdvertise message, the PN GW stores the Service Description, and then checks if the PNE is available for the service based on PN Inventory and will deliver the ServiceDescriptionAdvertise message to the PNE based on ServiceDescriptionAdvertise message, PNE is aware of available services to consume in the Zone. However, under this circumstance, PNE can't interact with PN GW, and can't request more practical, real-time related information inside the zone, either. On the other hand, PN GW has no idea how to provide more detailed, appropriate personalized information inside the zone to each individual PNE.